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Protect breastfeeding – A shared responsibility

05 August 2021 | Story Dr Chantell Witten | Photo Supplied

Opinion article by Dr Chantell Witten, Division of Health Professions Education, University of the Free State.

World Breastfeeding Week is celebrated every year from 1-7 August. In South Africa, it coincides with Women’s Month and gives us the opportunity to reflect on how far we have come and how far we still have to go to achieve gender equity in different spheres of life. Even more reason for us in the academic sphere to stop and think about the areas of support that may still need attention and effort to correct.

In the context of protecting breastfeeding this would speak to the Code of Good Conduct in the Labour Act which affords pregnant and breastfeeding women protection and support. In extreme cases it means protection from exposure to hazardous substances, but in the general setting of the work environment this relates to workplace support for a private and safe place to express breastmilk. One institution made headlines when a staff member was secretly videoed while she was expressing breastmilk. What is also needed is to put in place a policy that guides on how university property such as a fridge may or may not be used to store expressed breastmilk, or how to deal with a manager who insists on holding meetings in a woman’s scheduled milk-expressing time slots. The law may indicate that you are entitled to two 30-minute time slots to express but it is quite another issue to get your colleagues to accommodate or respect your biological needs.

Protecting breastfeeding

Besides the protection of employees, the government in its commitment to improve child health and nutrition has committed to protect breastfeeding from the undue influence of the infant-formula industry by implementing the recommendations of the International Code for the Marketing of Breastmilk Substitutes. South Africa approved the Regulations Relating to Foodstuff for Infants and Young Children (R991) to control the marketing and promotion of infant formula by limiting how the product may be marketed and how the industry may engage with the public and child health and development professionals, in particular.

While many are aware of the prohibition to advertise or to promote and distribute free or incentivised sales of infant formula, many may not be aware of the limitations placed on academics and researchers. The academic and research fraternity has had a long and conflicted relationship and history with the infant-formula industry. Many departments and individual researchers have received funding, conference sponsorship and gifts from the infant-formula industry. In the early 2000s at the height of the HIV epidemic, the Department of Health recommended that women living with HIV should not breastfeed and instead provided six months of free formula milk, inadvertently implying that health professionals approved of infant formula. While the national Department of Health has since stopped the distribution of free infant formula through the programme for the prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV (PMTCT) from 2011, many health professionals trained in the early years continue giving mixed messages to mothers and display limited skills to promote and support breastfeeding.

So how do we protect breastfeeding in the academic setting?

As more women enter academia, managers and the institutional leadership need to be cognisant and purposeful in developing a breastfeeding culture by granting women the protections afforded them by the Labour Law. Furthermore, in all spheres of academia and research, and as an institution, we need to guard against conflict of interest and conflicted relationships with the infant-formula industry. We need to do due diligence by raising the awareness of R991. All child health and development professionals should be acquainted with R991 through their curricula, and we should individually and collectively be accountable in our conduct to protect, promote and support breastfeeding as a human right, an investment in health and development, and for a sustainable future. There can be no greater dividend than to invest in optimal nutrition for infants and our children. They are the future.

News Archive

UFS awards centenary bonuses to staff

2004-11-25

The University of the Free State (UFS) will award a special Centenary bonus of R3000 (three thousand rand) to all qualifying staff in December 2004 .

As far as general salary increases for 2005 are concerned, plus an inflation- based linked salary increase adjustment of 1,4 percent and a further 4,6 percent salary increase as a final dividend from the financial turn-around strategy that began in 2000, will be instituted .

The final percentage salary increase is dependent on whether the expected government subsidy, of which the UFS must still receive notification from the Department of Education, is received.
, if the expected government subsidy realizes .
In addition, the salaries of service workers in low remuneration groups, as well as full professors have been adjusted retroactively to 1 January 2004. This restructuring was agreed upon to address market-related backlogs for these two groups , who display the biggest backlog relative to comparable institutions . A similar professional bench-marking exercise for support service staff has not been finalised.

This agreement was signed on Wednesday 24 November 2004 between the UFS Council and the UVPERSU-NEHAWU Joint Forum regarding salary negotiations for 2005.

“With this Centenary bonus and the significant above-inflation salary increase payment the UFS wants to pay recogni se tion to the sterling role that staff

have played in a difficult period of transition and fast growth and the contributions that they made to promote excellence at the UFS to a

university of excellence,” said Prof Frederick Fourie, Rector and Vice-

Chancellor of the UFS.

He said that the extra payment of this final 4,6 percent increase due to benefit from the financial turn-around strategy means that in real terms average salaries at the UFS had increased over the past 3 to 4 years by well over more that the 15 percent target that was set initially.

According to Prof Fourie all staff members who were in the employ of the UFS on UFS conditions of service on 15 November 2004 and who assumed duties before 1 October 2004, will qualify for the bonus. The same criteria will apply as for the 2004 bonuses.

However, there are some exceptions who do not qualify for the bonus eg learning facilitators, professors extraordinary, affiliated lecturers, departmental assistants, laboratory assistants, student help, all staff appointed for less than 20 hours per week, persons who are paid on a claims basis etc.

“Although the UFS’s actual subsidy amount is not yet known, an increase of 6,6 % in the total remuneration costs was budgeted for in the budget serving before the Executive Management and Council. It was further agreed with the UVPERSU-NEHAWU Joint Forum that the first 6 % increase will be used as general pensionable salary adjustment with implementation date 1 January 2005,” said Prof Fourie.

According to Prof Fourie the agreement also applies to all staff members of the Qwaqwa and Vista campuses whose conditions of service are already aligned with those of the main campus.

Media release
Issued by: Lacea Loader
Media Representative
Tel: (051) 401-2584
Cell: 083 645 2454
E-mail: loaderl.stg@mail.uovs.ac.za
25 November 2004

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